Post 35: "Haunted House"

From 13-Year-Old Anne's Journal —December 15, 1982 – FAIR "Laura helps this old man who loves this dead woman. They fix up his house, etc. I don’t remember how it ends."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ138JyXHpw____________________________________________________From Anne —

Yick! Obviously this episode did not hold Young Anne's interest, with its faux scariness, psychological dreariness, and sneaky Christian proselytizing.This Victor French-directed missive is a total drag, from Nellie and Willie's whiny chants, to the fakeness of Mr. Pike's beard, to the stupid way that Laura skips home after leading Pike to Jesus like a goat to grass.Even as a kid I had allergic reactions to too much religiosity.This seems to be one in a variety of episodes in which Laura (aka "runny nose little upstart") befriends some cranky old coot and they both learn something. I'll take Mr. Sprague over Mr. Pike any day.I found myself more interested in how Mr. Pike made his money and how he managed to build a pretty stylin' house in the middle of BFE W.G.  We quickly tire of the music boxes, howling cat noises, and dusty oil portraits — seems like Victor French and the writers really phoned it in. Is there anything good we can say, Tracy?

____________________________________________________ From Tracy — I really liked the spinning doll under the glass dome. I remember I became obsessed with finding one for myself. That's one good thing I can remember about this episode.It's funny but I also remember being covetous of the haunted house itself. We didn't have a haunted house in our neighborhood. Or a scary house. Or even a house with mysterious people in it. Ours was a freshly built suburb with no creakiness. I think the best we could do was an over-the-top Halloween which I swear seemed to go on for days with pranks being played between the kids and between the adults. Being bombarded with snowballs from a snow cone machine? Check. A long black vintage hearse belching fake fog taking kids to the far reaches of our suburbia? Check. My dad going over to peep in the neighbor's windows in his scariest mask and scaring the wife so bad she peed her pants? Check. Going home to get a fresh empty candy bag because your first bag was bursting? Check. You can only imagine how lame I think today's Halloween is.But back to the episode. Now really. What is it with Laura? Would she try to befriend Hitler too? Spunk doesn't even begin to cover it.And Jack. Bad dog! I think he is an evil sprite. His role is to play Puck and get Laura into trouble every time.Finally this episode reminds me that "guilt is a wasted emotion." Poor Mr. Pike has been destroyed by it. And I live under its nagging cloud like a lot of women. Maybe I should stitch that saying up in a sampler to remind me.